Counterflow system for wool scouring machines



May 9, 1939. F. L. FURBUSH COUNTERFLOW SYSTEM FOR WOOL SCOURING IACHINES Filed Dec. 7. 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet l May 9, 1939. F. L. FURBUSH COUNTERF LOW SYSTEM FOR WOOL SCOURING IACHINES Filed Dec. '7, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 9 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE COUNTEBFLOW SYSTEM FOR WOOL SCOURING MACHINES Application December '1, 1931, Serial No. 178,596

50laims.

This invention relates to wool scouring machines of a character quite commonly in use and in which the wool passes through a series of separate bowls or tanks containing the scouring liquid and in which the'wool is carried through these bowls by reciprocating rakes, the wool passing through pressing rolls located between the bowls. More particularly the invention relates to a means whereby the liquid within the bowls is caused to pass from bowl to bowl in a direction reverse to the direction .of travel of the wool as it passes through the bowl to thus provide means whereby the soapy liquid" in the last bowl of the series may be carried back from bowl to bowl to the first bowl of the series and from thence discharged to a drain or to means whereby it may be afterwards treated to separate the grease therefrom.

Another object is to provide means of this character by which the level of the liquid in any particular bowl may be kept at a predetermined depth and in this connection to provide a tank for each bowl. mounted upon the side' 'of the bowl and communicating with the interior of the bowl at a point below a screen therein, this tank being divided into two portions by a transverse vertically adjustable partition, the liquid overflowing the upper edge of the partition being carried off by a pump and discharged into the entrance end of a succeeding tank.

Other objects will appear more fully hereinafter.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary top plan view of two tanks of a series and Fig. 1' is a top plan view of two further tanks of the same series.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the tank shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2" is a side elevation of the tank shown in Fig. 2, it being understood that Figs. 1 and 1' are to be read together and Figs. 2 and 2' also are to be read together.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view on an enlarged scale of means for feeding fresh water into the last bowl of the series, the sidewall of the bowl being broken away.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary elevation of one of the bowls partly broken away and showing the depth controlling tank of that bowl and a portion of the pipe leading to the succeeding pump.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary side elevation of two adjacent bowls showing a modification of the piping to the pump.

In Figs. 1 and 1'- and 2 and 2' I have illustrated a plurality of bowls. These bowls in actual practice are of different lengths. The bowls are indicated as l, 2, I and 4 for successive bowls, the bowl i being the bowl into which the wool enters, as indicated by the arrow (1. The bowls are filled with liquid and the wool is fed along 5 these bowls by the rakes 5 operated by any suitable mechanism such as commonly iound in wool scouring machines, these rakes moving longitudinally, then lifting vertically, moving rearward and then again moving downward into the wool. 10 Inasmuch as these rakes are commonly found in wool scouring machines, I have not considered it necessary to illustrate the particular means whereby the rakes are operated. There is a set of these rakes for each one of the bowls.

At the outlet end of each bowl there is a pair of squeeze rolls designated 6 and I whereby the liquid is squeezed from the wool and the wool is then carried upon a conveyor 8 and discharged into the entrance end of the next succeeding go bowl. This also is a common mechanism and requires no speciflc description as it forms no part of my invention. These squeeze rolls and the means for operating them and the conveyor and its operating means may be of any suitable con- 25 struction.

The bowl 4 which is assumed to be the last bowl of a series through which the wool successively passes is supplied with fresh, clean water by the means shown in Fig. 3. In this figure, 9 designates a supply pipe and III a vertical pipe which at its lower end is laterally bent or extended and opens into the bowl 4. Disposed within this vertical pipe III is a valve (not shown in detail) controlled by a float H pivoted upon a bracket [2. When this float rises, it cuts off the supply of liquid to the lower end of the pipe it from the supply pipe 9. When it falls, liquid is allowed to flow into the bowl. The ball ll floats upon liquid contained in a float tank I 3 which has an opening or passage l4 communicating with the interior of bowl 4 below the normal level of liquid in this bowl, thus the liquid in the tank i3 will have exactly the same height as the liquid in the bowl 4. 4

Disposed within each bowl is a longitudinally extending screen i5, as shown in Fig. 3 and in dotted lines in Figs. 2 and 2, and the wool travels above this-screen. Preferably the pipe l4 which connects the tank l3 to the interior of the bowl 5 4 opens into the bowl 4 below the level of the screen l5 so that the wool will not in any way obstruct the passage of water from the bowl 4 into the tank I3.

For the purpose of conveying water from the v bowlltothebowl 8.1provideatank ",as showninl'ig. whichhasanupstandingparthe middle of the tank.- Mounted partition II for vertical adjustment is a plate ll which constitutes a part of the partition' so t in effect the partition is vertically adjustable as to height. I. have shown the partition plate II as mounted by means of a screw upon the partition II, but I do not wish to be limited to this as other means for adjusting the extension ll might be used. Entering the inlet 'side of the tank II is a pipe 2' which opens into the bowlat a point below the screen II, as shown in Fig. 4. From the outlet end of the tank I. there leads a pipe 2i which, as shown in Fig. 2, discharges into a pan 22 disposed below the squeeze rolls I and I which in turn are disposed between the bowl 4 and the bowl 2. Liquid is taken from the pan 22 by means of the pipeatoapump 2l,asshowninl"lg.2,and from this pump a pipe 2' leads upward and forward and discharges into the forward end of the bowl I. Thebowl8isalsoeqfl ppedwithatankii, as shown in Fig. 4. and connected to the bowl 8 in the same manner that the tank is connected to the bowl 4, and from this tank leads a pipe 2i to a second pan 22. From this second pan 22 there leads a pipe 22 such as previousLv described. to a pump 24 which in turn discharges through a pipe 2' into the forward end of the bowl 2. The same mechanism is applied to bowl I. v

It will be seen that this pipin ystem as described causes the liquid discharged from the bowl 4 to be passed forward to the entrance end oi bowl 2 and the liquid from bowl I is in turn carried back and discharged into the forward end of the bowl 2 and this liquid from bowl 2 is in turn discharged into the forward end of bowl I but that .there is no flow of the liquid in the reverse direction from bowl to bowl; In other words, fresh water enters at the final bowl of the series, which is the rinsing bowl. This relatively cleanwater is carried back from the bowl 4 to the entrance end of bowl I, the water from bowl I, after it has done its work. is carried back to the bowl 2, and the water from bowl 2 is in turn carried back and discharged into the bowl I or flrst bowl of the series. Thus by passing the liquid from the last bowl of the series to the first bowl of the series and saponlfying the liquid by the several pumps, all of the grease is carried back to the first bowl of the series where it may be discharged from the waste pipe and saved. All of the soap formed by the combination of alkali with grease is carried back into the first bowl of the series. Thus the water in the succeeding bowls and particularly the last bowl of the series is kept cleaner and does away with the necessity of drawing off the liquid from the bowls as often as is necessary under the old system.

It will be seen that the adjustment of the partition extension [8 controls the level of the water retained in any bowl so that the water in the bowl remains at all times at a predetermined level. The excess water is discharged over the partition extension I! and is carried on back and discharged into the next preceding bowl. In general use an alkali is put into the first and second bowls of the series and a certain amount of this alkali with the wool will pass to the succeeding bowls. The last or fourth bowl is used primarllyasarinsingbowl andthisbowliswhere the clean water is controllably admitted by the valve mechanism shown in Fig. 3. The alkali that is put into the wash bowls cuts the grease in the wool and the grease and alkali together make a soap with which to scour the wool and by passing the liquid from bowl to bowl by the action of the pumps 2|, all the grease flows back to the first bowl of the series and is discharged through the, waste pipe or drain pipe 26 which leads from the last tank ll of the series. In'the first bowl of the series, the soapy liquid is continually being discharged through the overflow pipe 28. By passing the liquid through a pump before discharging the liquid into the forward end of a bowl, the-pump acts to break up the mixture and saponify-the liquid. In some cases a pump may be connected with the overflow pipe 20 so that the overflow therefrom which contains a great amount of grease may .be piped to a centrifugal separator which will separate the wool grease from the alkali, the wool grease being used to make lanoline and various other compounds where apenetrating grease is required. The object of this system primarily is to save soap and alkali by passing this soap formed by the combination of the alkali with the grease back into the first bowl of the series. The system helps to provide a cleaner liquid in the last bowl of the series which prevents the necessity of drawing off the liquid from the bowls as often as is necessary where the oldway of seeming is used. It will be seen that the mechanism for drawing oil. the liquid and carrying it back to the preceding bowl is all on the exterior of the bowls so that it does not in any way interfere with the free operation of the conveying rakes nor the free movement of the wool. Of course, the object of the screen I! is to prevent wool from being drawn into the inlet pipe 20 of the tank l and thus obstructing the passage of liquid through this tank. I have illustrated in Fig. 2 a final pair of pressing rolls 6 and 1 with the conveyor 8 and a pan 22 from which liquid is taken by a pipe 22 extending to a pump 24 and discharging this liquid by a pipe 25 to the inlet end of the tank 4. Thus the water which is finally squeezed out of the wool after it passes from the fourth tank is returned to the intake and of the tank 4. I

While in Figs. 1 to 4, the pipes 22 are shown as taking water each from a pan 22, I do not wish to be limited to this as each pump inlet pipe 22 may be connected directly with the discharge pipe 2| of the successive tank l8 by a pipe connection 21, the pump being also connected to the successive pan 22 by a connection 28. This is illustrated in Fig. 5.

While I have shown four tanks. and illustrated these tanks as of the same length, it is to be understood that there may be more than four tanks and that these tanks will be preferably of different lengths. Thus these bowls may vary in length from 16 to 32 ft. and a line of scouring bowls generally consists of four to five bowls, the first bowl being 16 ft. long, the second 21 ft., the third 27 ft., and the fourth 32 ft.

I have not attempted to show the mechanism for driving these squeeze rolls, placing pressure thereon or operating the rakes as this is old and well known.

What is claimed is: 1. A wool scouring machine, including a series of washing bowls, each having a transversely extending screen, means for supplying clean liquid to the last bowl of the series, means for causing thewooltopassiromtheiirstbowlottheseries to and through the other bowls of the series in succession, and means for taking liquid from below the screen of each bowl and discharging all of the liquid from said bowl successively into the next preceding bowl.

2- A wool scouring machine, including a series of washing bowls each having a transversely extending screen, means for causing the wool to travel successively in one direction through each bowl, means for transferring the wool from a preceding bowl to a successive bowl, means for supplying clean liquid to the last bowl of the series and means for pumping liquid fromeach bowl below the screen thereof and discharging all of the pumped liquid into the forward end of the next preceding bowl of the series.

3. A wool scouring machine, including a series of washing bowls each having a transversely extending screen, means for causing the wool to travel successively in one direction through each bowl, means for transferring the wool from a preceding bowl to a successive bowl, means for supplying clean liquid to the last bowl of the series and means for pumping liquid from each bowl below the screen thereof and discharging all of the pumped liquid into the forward end of the next preceding bowl of the series, said means including a tank for each bowl and connected to the corresponding bowl below the screen thereof, the tank having a partition extending upward from the bottom of the tank and having a height equal to the predetermined height of the liquid in the bowl from which the tank takes liquid.

4. A wool scouring machine, including a series of washing bowls each having a transverse longitudinal screen, means for causing the wool to travel in one direction through each bowl, means between the bowls for squeezing the liquid out of the wool and transferring the wool to the next succeeding bowl, a pan disposed beneath each squeezing and transferring means, a tank associated with each bowl and having a tion extendingupwardtoaheightequalto predetermined height of the liquid in that the tank having an inlet pipe connection 1 from a point below the screen 01' the corresponding bowl and an outlet pipe connection on the other side of said partition leading to a pan, ,8. pump for each bowl having an inlet pipe connection leading from the succeeding pan and a discharge pipe connection leading to the forward end oi the bowl with which the pump is associated, and means for discharging liquid into the last bowl of the series.

5. A wool scouring machine, including a series of washing bowls each having a transverse longi-' tudinally extending screen, means for causing the wool to travel successively through each bowl above the screen thereof, means at the discharge end of each bowl for s'queezingthe liquid from the wool and conveying the wool to the inlet end of the next successive bowl, a pan disposed beneath each squeezing and conveying means, means for discharging liquid into the last bowl of the series, and means for causing liquid to travel from the last bowl of the series successively through preceding bowls and be discharged into the first bowl of the series, comprising a tank mounted upon each bowl, each tank having a vertical partition having a vertically adjustable extension at its upper end, each tank having an inlet pipe leading from the interior of the corresponding bowl below the screen thereof into the tank on one side of said partition and an outlet pipe leading from the tank on the other side or the partition and discharging into the next preceding pan, a pump associated with each bowl, each pump having an inlet pipe communicating with the successive pan, and a discharge pipe .diacharging into the inlet end of the co bowl, the tank associated with the first bowl or the series having a final discharge pipe.

FRANK L FURBUBH. 

